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Meet the eSport qualifiers: Part 2

Ever wanted to know what would drive those to be the best in the MotoGP™ eSport Championship

The power and passion of MotoGP™ bring people together, as nine players from five different countries over two continents can contest.

The inaugural MotoGP™ eSport Championship has witnessed the discovery of a side of motorcycle racing previously unknown. Offered the opportunity to showcase their talents, the world’s fastest players in MotoGP™17 were out to win the first eSport Championship crown of its kind. And with nine qualifying positions remaining over three ‘Time Attack’ challenge periods, those that took up the offer were not prevented by borders, seas or boundaries.

Already through from the first three online Challenges were four Spanish players, one Italian, one English and one player from the Netherlands. Not to be outdone by their nearest rivals in racing, the Italians stepped up to the plate in the second half of the season. Adding four more names to the list, ‘IOTIFOROSSI’, ‘TRASTEVEVER73’ and ‘IVANGAMER2346’ achieved a clean-sweep of Challenge #4 at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli. The last Italian to throw their hat in the ring was ‘LUIGI48GP’ who made an impressive lap time of 1:23.220 around Australia’s favourite track – the Phillip Island GP Circuit.

Spain did manage two more names on top of the timesheets, with ‘PAUL_IG’ and ‘THEFUGIA’ also through for the Valencian Grand Final. The last three places were taken by German ‘TIMOTHYMCGARDEN’, Englishman ‘RICK_MOTOGP_35’ and South African ‘KYRANDL49’. The distance between their home countries is where the divide amongst players ends, however, with each showing how MotoGP™ draws fans of motorcycle racing together.

By far the most outstanding similarity was that only ‘IVANGAMER73’ and ‘RICK_MOTOGP_35’ had a different opinion when it came to a racer's favourite bike. The Italian chose Ducati, and the Englishman went with Honda, which matched his favourite rider of all time – another for the baby Samurai himself, Dani Pedrosa. The others chose the greatest-of-all-time combination in Valentino Rossi as the man and Yamaha as the machine. However, Spanish contender ‘THEFUGIA’ was looking at the talent on a different level and threw Johan Zarco into the mix as a favourite as well.

What were the picks of tracks that get the heart pumping for these top MotoGP™17 players? Mugello won the majority vote, followed by Phillip Island. It may have had something to do with the number of Italian’s crossing the chequered flag in the second half of the online Challenges, but even ‘RICK_MOTOGP_35’ and ‘KYRANDL49’ had to agree.

See the players come together in Valencia for this world first LIVE Final event, Friday 10 November at 17:00 pm CET.